28.12.06

Welcome back to my multi-part series on Iran and North Korea. There are just around three options to eliminate the problems posed by these countries that I outlined in the last post.

1. Going to war.

Personally, I don't think that there is really an option of going to war with these two countries. I think it would be like Iraq, but worse. We don't have the troop levels, the international support or the domestic support. It would cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides and really just wouldn't be worth it at all.

To me, this doesn't particularly solve anything in the long run. First of all, anything that we destroy can and will be rebuilt, so it is not a long term solution. Secondly, destroying something on North Korean or Iranian soil will just give these leaders more of an opportunity to turn the population against up, and bring about hatred in the form of national unity.

3. Eliminating the leaders of these countries.

This is against U.S policy, and would have to be done very sneakily so as to make it look like an accident. This is because if it does not look like an accident or natural causes, it could unite the country under an extremist successor and we would be worse off than when we started.

I think that in the long run, a combination of the second and third courses of action are what is best for U.S interests. If we destroy their nuclear facilities, and eliminate their leaders, either through intimidation, taking away their porn collections or killing them in a mock accident, and then line up a successor that is actually fit to rule, everybody would be much better and we would only have to China and Russia to deal with and oh yeah Osama bin Laden. But seriously, any sort of assassination or "shock and awing" out of power should only be used as a last resort when peaceful negotiations fail, and a threat to U.S interests seems very imminent.

In this multi-part series, I am going to be exploring the many facets of the problems posed towards America by North Korea and Iran. You may ask, why am I doing this? And I would tell you, because I can!From my standpoint, the way things are looking right now, an alliance between a nuclear North Korea, and a wanna-be nuclear Iran is potentially hazardous to our country. This is for a few reasons.

Both dictators have no regard for their people's well being, and run a state of ultra-security, meaning no information about the state goes in or out unless it is smuggled.

Their propaganda machine can pin all of their problems on the U.S and its allies, meaning that it could stir its people into a war frenzy against the "rorld", or the "infidels."

North Korea is nuclear, and Iran is a nuclear wanna-be.

North Korea has ties to Russia and China, both of whom have uneasy relations with the U.S.

Iran has ties to a Muslim world that openly does not like the U.S (for the most part).

These leaders do not really have a sense for the impact that some of their actions may have on their county and the rest of the world, i.e they are somewhat irresponsible towards their peoples needs.

Everybody is complaining about outsourcing. But what is the cause of outsourcing? Labor is much cheaper in other countries where the standard of living is less and minimum wage is either less regulated, less, or non-exist. Everybody wants to bring these jobs back to the U.S and U.S citizens, but how can we do this when a companies sole purpose in life is to make as much money as it can as quickly as it can? The answer, lies in our own backyard, or rather our neighbors backyard.Cheap labor is available readily in our country through working passes issued to Mexican citizens who cannot otherwise support their families. So why not use it? American corporations could then bring back jobs from places like India and China, and help these Mexican families attain a better quality of life. And after a while who knows, these jobs could go back to the Americans who need them most.At least the jobs come back onto American soil, and hey, it's a start.

Looks like people have been posting their sensitive information online...on Google of all places. If people sue Google and win. It's kind of like getting drunk, and walking around in your underwear, and then suing Jimmy Bean.

This just in from the murderer of countless Iraqi citizens: "Do not hate"Apparently after learning that he will soon become a martyr, or a cadaver depending on your viewpoint, Saddam wrote a final sob letter to a world that never really understood him. Tear, tear. That being said, I'm not sure that executing him is the right way to go.

"some Hussein loyalists threatened to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader is executed, warning in a posting on the same Baath Party Web site that carried the former leader's letter they would target U.S. interests anywhere."

By executing Saddam, we are just putting ourselves on the hit list of so many more extremists who are willing to die for their cause. Eventually, if enough people hate us something bad is going to happen.

Now I'm not saying that Saddam should be given a full pardon, but just be kept in life imprisonment and maybe executed later. Executing him now is like rubbing dirt in the wounds of the extremist movement, and is not a wise decision at this point.

Something that bothers me a little bit, is when people leave their Christmas decorations up until Easter. Yes, we understand that you like Christmas, and you wish everyday was Christmas, but could you please take your decorations down its already been like a month. Anyway thats besides the point. I was driving past I don't know where, and I saw these decorations on the lawn.And I bet you anything, they will be up for at least another month.

It seems that almost every month or so, I have to call tech support for one reason or another. And every time it happens, I take a phone, dial the number, put it on speakerphone and surf the web until somebody picks up. I can wait for hours sometimes, and then I just get transferred. So I came up with a solution.

Why can't they call us back? Why can't it be like this:

You dial the number. A computer picks up and tells you that all operators are busy, but if you could please enter your phone number as soon as one becomes available he will call you back. Thank you for your time.

This means no more waiting on hold for hours on end. I don't know how much it costs for a company to call you from Mumbai, but it seems like it would be cheap enough.

26.12.06

As someone who uses Cingular's EDGE mobile wireless network, this announcement from Google's blog is exciting. Now I can be in the car, and have directions to my location read out to me as I drive. Very, very, very cool.

Hits to this site have been very satisfying for its first few days of operation, but subscriptions to the feed are quite low. I was wondering if that was because of something that I have done, like this is not interesting enough, or if it was because how to subscribe (to where) was not obvious enough?

Microsoft, the biggest software corporation in the world, led for now by the richest man in the world, has just released a piece of software that it has spent years and millions upon millions of dollars on, that is doomed for failure. Why?

Around a year ago, I bought an Alienware laptop for about $1500. Today, I ran the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, and guess what? I failed. That means that I can't run Vista on my computer. Which mean, that I'm not going to upgrade until I get a new computer. If I just bought an relatively expensive Alienware laptop a year ago and it can't run Vista, I'm betting that most consumers and business' can't afford the kind of graphics intensive system that Vista requires. Which means less of an incentive to upgrade to Vista, especially since its heralded unparalleled security seems pretty much the same as XP.Here too. So basically, there is no incentive to upgrade until I upgrade my computer anyway.

Sorry Microsoft, but you couldn't quite pull off the copy cat job this time.

In about 18 months, every restaurant in New York City will have fazed out trans fats (except for the ones that want to get arrested, or worse fined ;) ). Personally I think that this is almost outrageous, not quite though. I understand the reasoning behind it. It is to protect consumers from the evils of trans fats, and to curb the obesity epidemic facing New York and America. But let us take a step back. How come a restaurant can serve alcohol, a potentially lethal drink, that alters the consciousness of the consumer to the point where he loses his inhibitions and leads to countless car accidents a year, but that same restaurant cannot serve a dish that can, over time in large quantities, lead to heart disease among other things. That is one thing I don't understand. There are others.

What ever happened to consumer responsibility. Shouldn't consumers be able to make informed choices about what they eat. Why can't we choose for ourselves. I don't think as an American citizen that I shouldn't be allowed to eat something that I want to as long as I understand the potential health risks after a few decades of frequent ingestion. That's just me.

25.12.06

Well, 8:30 is on its way, and I'm looking forward to a nice healthy dose of Chad Pennington to finish off my monday night. But before I do that, I just want to thank you for all of the hits I've had lately, and show you how many people from around the world have visited so far. Again, Merry Christmas.

Note: each dot is a hitIf you want to see a map of where people are visting from, Google Analytics can help, and its free.

What this blog would look like as soup:I couldn't get the text exactly right, but you get the idea. Maybe I should have done something more in the holidy spirit, like what it would look like as mint jelly.

Merry Christmas. These are my Top 10 Time-Wasting Games that I have played this year, in no particular order:1. Line Rider This is a little bit predictable, but seriously this is possibly the most timewasting game I have ever played. I can go for hours and hours without getting tired. (That's what she said)2. Two Minute Football I like football, and I play this on Sunday while I'm waiting for the game to start. I can't get past All-Pro, what about you?3. Top Dog I played this all the time earlier in the year. The trick is to fly upside down close to the ground and don't let the other plane get on the ground. My highest is 34? What's yours?4. Escapa! This is a very difficult game. It's good for a warm up session before a nice game of Halo. Gets the reflexes up.5. BMX Backflips 2 I played the wheely level constantly from morning to night for about a month. Truly an addicting game.6. Frat Boy Beer Pong Fun......7. Ice Breakout This year was the year of the penguin, and this is the game of the penguin. Dont push me, cause I'm close to the edge.8. Red Line Rumble Good street racing game. It's the poor mans NFS.9. Drivers Ed This should be the standard government driving test. Beats going to the DMV.10. Hell of Falling Sand Game Very addicting. Limitless possibilities for destruction.

I don't know what this post has to do with restoring sanity, but I thought it would be fun to do. What are your favorite games? I'd love to find new ways to waste time. Post your comments and see you soon.

24.12.06

It's true, and the reason makes sense. A psychologist at the University of Bath, who is an avid biker (he probably even shaves his legs), did a study where he rigged his bike with an ultrasonic sensor, helping him detect how far away cars were passing him. Then all he did was ride his bike to work for the next two months, with and without helmets. The study shows that drivers passed him about 3.35 inches closer when he was wearing a helmet than without. Apparently the study shows, most drivers would rather hit a guy with a helmet than without one. And yes, he did get hit during his study. Once by a bus, and once by a truck. Both times while he was wearing a helmet. (I think he did on purpose). Until tommorow....

I was reading through a few blogs, and I found something called Snap. Here is an example:GoogleRun your mouse over that and what pops up? A cached image of Google thats what. So in your egnog infused stupor, you should probably skip on over to Snap and put image infused links under your tree for free.Just thought I might let you guys know, because it just definitely made my day. Tommorow I'm going to have a real post for you guys, just sort of taking a little break right now, you know Holiday spirit.

I think I may be starting a new tradition for this blog. I think I am going to be doing one post every Sunday concerning football. That isn't to say that this blog is soley about football, it's just something that I am interested in and you quite possibly are as well. If you're not, then go read something else on Sundays.

Personally, I am a fan of the Jets. My family has had season tickets since 1969, and it's sort of a tradition. Now watching the Jets for so many years, they have really introduced me to the joy of either narrowly losing, or narrowly winning in the NFL. This is because, almost every game the Jets play is a nail biter. Save for games against Green Bay, Houston and the Vikings, we have won almost every game by a touchdown or less this season. And I wouldn't want the Jets any other way. It makes things much more interesting. But the Jets aren't what I want this post to be about, well, not directly.

My question, is why, without Direct T.V, or a Slingbox, I can't watch a Jets game unless I'm in the Tri-State area. I mean if I was in Russia I could, because anybody outside of the U.S can watch a live streaming broadcast right on their laptops, or tricked out Ak-47s as the case may be. Take for example, the fact that last week I was on vacation, and in order to watch the game, I had to go on Yahoo and refresh a page every five seconds, to see what was happening during the game in text. Yes, text. It would say, C. Pennington 2 yard touchdown pass to C. Baker. Then I would furiously refresh to see if Mike Nugent had made the PAT, which of course with the Jets is something that is cast into doubt. He might make it, he might not. But still, can't the NFL screw the networks, and stream me my Jets game as long as I am outside of the Tri-State area? Pretty please? With a cherry?

I was reading through some blogs, and I came across a story about the Wii Seeker. It uses Google Maps technology to pin point where Wii's may be in your area. All you have to do is enter your zip code. But what I noticed that was odd about the link, is that the site was actually intended as a PS3 tracker because the URL is http://www.ps3seeker.com, I guess nobody was interested in finding a PS3, which is fitting because people can barely give them away on Ebay. Take that Norad Santa Tracker.

23.12.06

The last time I checked, seperation of church and state, was a key part of our government. But when I saw, Norad Tracks Santa, that seperation was cast into doubt. As someone who has to pay taxes every year, I am shall we say, "shocked and awed" that my tax dollars have gone to this. The site looks expensive, and the "tracking tools" probably cost a lot to keep in operation, not to mention people answering the phones for "Santa sightings." I thought that the North American Aerospace Defense Command "is a joint organization of the United States and Canada which provides aerospace warning and control for North America," not to help 10 year olds with serious gullibility issues track a fantastical obese man in a red suit who gets pulled across the U.S by flying reindeers with noses that glow red, delivering presents down every chimney along the way. Come on. Leave that sort of crap for Reagan's Star Wars project. Either that or Google

Ahh yes, the Iraq war. There are so many opinions on it, I knew that I had to contribute my 10 cents, or uhh 10 new dinars. Ok so here we go…..

How dumb do you have to be to commit the world’s largest and most powerful nation ever to a no win venture in Iraq. Lets face it when shock and awe started it all seemed pretty exciting, sort of like the fun you have when you are going to best buy to play the latest guitar hero package, even though you know you’re never going to buy it because Playstation 2 is for losers. But what were they thinking! Maybe we the population were naive enough to be optimistic about democracy for a country that was carved out of the desert by a colonial power without regard to the three seperate groups, Shia Sunni and Kurds that lived within the borders, but we weren’t elected nor paid to think about this stuff.

The governement is paid, and it seems they didn’t give it a second thought.

For us, it was just John Wayne swagerring in, beating up an oppressive dictator with a penchant for Cuban cigars and chemical weapons, and then turning control back over to the abundantly thankful Iraqi populace, who didn’t seem to mind that we had barged in and shocked and awed their cities into burnt and crisped. But when the Iraqis started ripping the toilet seats out of the governement ministries, even I knew something was wrong. Since then its all been downhill. Sure we can point to an election or two when we want to feel like the $600 billion and 3,000 lives we spent on this war was worth something, but lets face it. Things stink and are just going to get worse. Remeber when we were going to have the Iraqui’s pay for the war, I sure do and it sounded pretty good at the time.

When you read a bit about the history of Sunni and Shia, you quickly realize that they hate eachother. It all goes back a couple of thousand years, just before Brett Favre was drafted, to Muhammeds death and the fight over which Caliphs were supposed to be in charge. For my money, all religious wars are simply nuts but to these guys, “victory” is something worth having. Don’t the neocons read history and didn’t Bush at least have one conversation about this. He reports that he didn ‘t ask his father his opinion about whether to go to war. Well thats just great. There is one guy in the whole world who has done this before, I stand corrected, done this before to near perfection, including an exit strategy. He figured that if we threw out Sadam, what would happen next would resemble a hyena. Ugly. Since he couldn’t figre it out, he went home instead. Turns out it was good thinking. His son; though his very father was probably the best person in the world to ask about taking America to war in Iraq, (him and his generals) decided that he knew better, and brought us into Iraq without a workable strategy. Which brings us back to the toilets seats. Once a nation rips apart its government buildings we should have been smart enough to realize that they didn’t want them anymore. It turns out they were giving us a big signal that we missed. So now what?

I say that there is no reason to suspect that 1,000 years of religious war are going to end by election, so if we are going to be unsuccessful, I say be unsuccessful sooner rather than later. Lets go home. On the way out of Iraq, we ought to apoplogize and tell everyone we made a big mistake, that way maybe they won’t follow us home.

Hello. Since this is my first post, I wanted to tell you a little bit about who I am, and then we can get into the topic of this blog. I am Fox. This is my blog. I are here to give you some insight into issues that need “insighting”. I know that isn’t a word, but I feel like it best conveys what I am trying to do. I was thinking about a topic that I thought could really kick off this series, and I thought what better way to start than with the thing that is leaving every single American who still breaks out from a hamburger and who hasn’t emerged from their parents basement since 1997, totally and completely unsure of themselves. Decisions, decisions, decisions. In fact, Decision 2007. You may want to lock yourself in your room, and stop looping Lost (or is it Heroes) for the next 15 minutes while I help you make the biggest decision of the year. Whether to buy the Playstation, the Xbox or the Wii.

The first question that the would-be next generation gamer should ask himself (or herself, or itself as the case may be) is whether or not an upgrade is the right thing to do. I know my dad would be more than happy to play Mario Karts on the N64, but Halo makes him break out in a cold sweat. Sometimes better graphics, a next generation global gaming network and more games than women at the Playboy mansion isn’t the right way to go. If you’re a noob! But there’s also another way to look at it. In about two years there’s going to be an Xbox 720, a Playstation 4 and a Nintendo Wii Wii with next-next-generation everything, and people are going to lining the streets awaiting the revolution in gaming. So why buy Halo 3, when you can buy Halo 4? I have compiled a list of personal attributes that I think best describes the group of people who would most benefit from a console upgrade:

* The number of people on your Xbox Live Friends list outnumbers the average number of people you see in a day.* Your skin looks like it has been bleached.* You are still living with your parents.* You spend more time on the Internet than doing any other activity.* You have read anything by Charles Petzold or Andre Lamothe.* The penguin is your favorite animal.

If you fit any of these criteria, you should definitely get into this round of next-generation consoles. If you don’t, then wait another couple of years, because Super Mario is just fine for you.

First let’s start with the Playstation. If you are looking to buy a console for this winter season, the Playstation is not the way to go. Though it is sleek, its graphics are excellent, it has a Blu-Ray player and its PlaystationNETWORK is free, getting a Playstation is like giving a xenophobe a board game that requires 16 players; it’s basically useless and expensive. For me the part of the game that keeps on giving, or gaming, is the online multiplayer. Once the campaign is done, I can play online for months and months without tiring, but with nobody else online but the 300 Sony diehards with frostbitten thumbs, and a gullibility that rivals Jessica Simpson, who waited outside Walmart for hours on end, amid gang fights, yes gang fights, just to shell out $600 for console that is basically useless. It has about five launch titles, none of which utilize its graphical capabilities, it is expensive, its in short supply which means that instead of $600 dollars at BestBuy, you have to spend $1200 on BesterBuy, otherwise known as EBay and to top that all off, the controllers don’t even have a rumble pad. My Nintendo 64 had a rumble pad for Christ’s sakes. But, all that is not to say that in a few months when supply is up, costs are down and games start to come out, that the Playstation will not be a viable contender, but for now, unless you are a diehard fan or you just have a lot of money to waste, the Playstation is definitely not the way to go.

With the Playstation out of the running, that leaves two viable contenders each with their specific strengths and weaknesses. One console is not right for everybody, depending on what type of gamer you are either the Wii or the Xbox will suit your fancy.

The Xbox. Let us go over its strengths: It is nicely designed, it has over 100 games out, it is HD ready out of the box, and Xbox Live makes World of Warcraft look like a MUD game from the early 90’s especially now that it offers movie and T.V downloads. It has a rumble pad, yes I know a rumble pad, such high technology, as well as basically the same graphical capability of the PS3. Also, the Halo series is only playable on the Xbox, and don’t pretend like it didn’t influence your decision to buy one, because it did. With all of these pros, there are only three main cons that I can see for the Xbox: it doesn’t come with an adapter to hook up with your wireless network, (the last I checked to buy one it was $100), the controllers are not motion sensitive, and the big one, the games are not accessible to people of all skill levels. Games like Halo and Madden, may seem like simple conquests for Junior, but for Senior, though they may be fun after he learns how to play, most do not want to invest the time into a video game. Memorizing controller layouts for a game that your kid is only going to want to play for maybe a month is not at the top of a parents to-do list, especially now that there is Viagra.

And now onto the last item for Santa’s list of good boys and girls: the Wii. Besides the fact that an unobservant and uninformed person could mistake the Wii for an external hard drive, or an alien space ship for that matter, the Wii provides accessibility for everyone not just the people who can spend $600 and don’t need an ED pill. It is relatively cheap at $250, and it comes with Wii Sports, a graphically lacking but still incredibly fun assortment of sports games. Wii sports, coupled with the innovative motion sensitive wireless controller package, provides good clean fun for the entire family, and though the hard core World of Warcraft junkie of the clan may scoff at its deficiency of graphical capability, he may yet crack a metal filled smile while playing with his ‘rents.

In closing, I believe that the Wii hit the nail on the head in terms of appealing to the widest range of consumers, while Xbox will satisfy the demanding gamer with Xbox Live and a plethora of games to tickle his fancy. As for the Playstation 3? I would say wait a few months, the prices will drop, shipments will come in, and the Playstation will again become a contender.